Law Weblog

Corporate Manslaughter Bill

The latest version of the Corporate Manslaughter Bill is different from previous government proposals. The new bill proposes an offence that would criminalize ‘senior managers’ who were responsible for a ‘gross breach of any duty of care’ where a person has died as a result. The aim is to retain main elements of the common law offence of Corporate Manslaughter but to remove the requirement to identify a ‘controlling mind’ of an organisation that has been personally grossly negligent. The new offence would not be subject to Crown immunity. Since 1992 there have been 34 prosecution cases for work-related manslaughter but only six, small, organisations have been convicted.

Full details here